Saturday was the SCCC Mow Cop Ride, which is a ride that we have done before. Mow Cop is a rather famous hill but in actual fact we were going to climb it from the ‘easy’ side. We met at Congleton Park on a rather misty October Saturday morning.

We started by cycling from the car park, over the bridge and then briefly through the park.

We then crossed over the River Dane again to make our way out onto the road.

A very brief stretch of road, took us onto the Biddulph Way, which we then followed for some time. The Biddulph Way runs along what was an old railway line.

 

We stopped for a brief rest as we came off the Biddulph Way before setting off towards Mow Cop.

Our route took us up towards Mow Cow along Tower Hill Road which is a fairly long steady climb with a couple of steeper sections along the way.

Just before the end of Tower Hill Road, there were a couple of lovely alpaca’s watching us all go past.

At the end of Tower Hill Road we turned right onto Congelton Road which briefly goes across the ridge, from where there are some great views on days when it is clear. This was not the case for us as it was still rather misty.

We had a brief stop at the top from one of the viewpoints before the long descent down towards Congleton Garden Centre.

We took a very slight detour to Congleton Garden Centre for a coffee break.

After our coffee break headed back to the start via Astbury.

We then had to briefly joint the A34 before turning off down some much quieter lanes back into Congleton.

From Congleton, we went back to Congleton Park car park where we had started earlier that day.

We had cycled 13 miles, but it was certainly a very enjoyable ride. You can view our route for the day below: